The Serabit el-Khadim proto-Sinaitic inscriptions are about 30 early alphabetic inscriptions in proto-Sinaitic script found at or in the vicinity of Serabit el-Khadim on the Sinai Peninsula.
Description
Romanus François Butin of Catholic University of America published articles in the Harvard Theological Review based on the 1927 Harvard Mission to Serabit and the 1930 Harvard-Catholic University Joint Expedition. His article "The Serabit Inscriptions: II. The Decipherment and Significance of the Inscriptions" provides an early detailed study of the inscriptions and some dozen black and white photographs, hand-drawings and analysis of the previously published inscriptions, #346, 349, 350–354, and three new inscriptions, #355–368. At that time, #355 was still in situ at Serabit but had not been photographed by the previous Harvard Mission. In 1932, he wrote: The present article was begun with the limited purpose of making known the new inscriptions discovered by the Harvard-Catholic University Joint Expedition to Serabit in the spring of 1930. In the course of this study, I perceived that some signs doubtful in the inscriptions already published were made clear by the new slabs, and I decided to go over the entire field again.Vol. 25:2 (1932) The Serabit Expedition of 1930: IV. The Protosinaitic Inscriptions
Table of inscriptions All the inscriptions published between 1916 and 1936 were given identification numbers following those of Gardiner's initial 1916 publication. Gardiner's numbers 1–344 were objects from Sinai with unrelated Egyptian inscriptions, so the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions numbering began at 345. Future scholars continued this numbering scheme for ease of reference.
Name Object Images Location Discovery SketchPhotoOriginalCurrentIDDiscovererPublication 345 Sphinx Serabit, Hathor temple British Museum EA41748 1906, Petrie 1916, Gardiner 346 Statuette Egyptian Museum 38268 347 Two sphinx heads Art & History Museum (Brussels) – 348 Unknown Wadi Magharah Lost – 1868, Palmer 1904, Weill 349 Rock panel Serabit, Mine L Egyptian Museum 52511 1906, Petrie 1916, Gardiner 350 Rock panel 51517 351 Rock panel 52514 352 Rock panel 52510 353 Rock panel 51513 or 52515 354 Rock panel 52510 (partly lost) 356 Rock panel 51513 or 52515 1927, Lake 1928, Butin 357 Rock panel In situ 358 Serabit, Mine M 359 Unknown Egyptian Museum 52516 1929, Hjelt 360 Slab Ridge between Wadi Qattar and Wadi Umm Themeyim – 1930, Lake 1932, Butin 361 Small rock Serabit, Mine N – 362 Lozenge Serabit, above Mine L – 363 Serabit, south of Mine L – 364 Fragment Serabit, in front of Mine M – 365 palimpsest Serabit, Egyptian camp – 367 Rock panel Serabit, south of Mine L – 374 Serabit, Mine M 65466 1935, Lake 1936, Butin 375 65467 Gerster 1 Wadi Nasb In situ Gerster 1961, Leibovitch Gerster 2 Disputed (according to Albright): 355 In situ 1906, Petrie 1916, Gardiner 366 1930, Lake 1932, Butin 368 369 Statuette 370 371 372 373
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